Savoy Pictures
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Savoy Pictures Inc. was a subsidiary production company of Home Box Office. It produced and distributed high quality motion pictures theatrically from 1993 to 1996.
Victor A. Kaufman became chairman and chief executive officer of Savoy Pictures in 1992 along with vice chairman executive, Lewis J. Korman. Among Savoy Picture's noteworthy feature films were A Bronx Tale, No Escape, Last of the Dogmen and Serial Mom.
Budgets for their films grew. With rather poor marketing, Savoy faced a major financial slump, only three years after being formed. For three years, Savoy then released box office failures including Exit to Eden and Getting Away with Murder. HBO handled home video release for the Savoy library.
In January, 1995, Kaufman announced that he was hiring Robert N. Fried to run the motion picture studio. Fried brought in executives Alan Sokol, Bob Levin, Cathy Schulman, Stan Brooks, Stan Wlodkowski and filmmakers Sam Raimi, Bob Teitel and George Tillman, Rob Weiss and Peter Chelsom. In September, 1995, Kaufman announced that he was no longer going to invest in the motion picture business and was re-positioning the company as a TV station holding company. Shortly thereafter, he announced a deal with New Line Cinema to distribute and/or co-produce the films that were then in production or pre-production, such as Martin Lawrence's directorable debut A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, "American History X" The Adventures of Pinocchio, "Wedding Planner" and The Stupids. Paramount pictures distributed and co-produced the Savoy film "A Simple Plan."
From 1994 to 1997, Savoy was half of a joint venture with Fox Broadcasting Company, in a company called SF Broadcasting. Stations owned by SF Broadcasting were WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama, WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, WVUE in New Orleans, and KHON in Honolulu, Hawaii. All became Fox affiliates in 1995. They were sold to Silver King Broadcasting in 1997.
Savoy Pictures announced in December, 1995 that Barry Diller's IAC/Interactive Corporation was going acquire Savoy. The deal was finalized in 1997. Victor Kaufman is presently Vice Chairman and sits on the board of directors of IAC.
Today, HBO remains the home video rights holder for the Savoy library, with sister company Warner Bros. Television holding television distribution.
